• Wednesday-What'sUP September 16 - 10:58 pm

Brenda Leigh has been a busy gardener this year and she has some colorful produce to show for it. Brenda collected a bushel basket full of tomatoes and topped it off with a few green peppers and what looks like it might be a small zucchini in her first photo. Then she taunts us with a shot of one of her Sugar Pumpkins, that she's planning to make pie with. I wonder if we'll all get an invite over to sample a piece? :->

That last photo shows off a good crop of Roma Tomatoes. Once they all ripen and turn rosy red, Brenda will be turning them into some homemade salsa. All in all, Brenda has herself a pretty good harvest from this year's U.P. growing season and will be enjoying lots of goodies long after the garden is finished producing.

Very impressive considering the growing conditions this year!

Looking at these pictures makes me sad. All of my tomatoes have been picked, eaten or made into salsa. Our growing season is over. Nice going, Brenda!

Gorgeous harvest, Brenda.

Another wonderful part of fall....fresh home-grown vegetables and farmer's markets! Beats "grown in Mexico" anytime!

While a student for a summer job I did work at Zeims farm at the Trap Rock River but never took part in the harvest. These are beautiful pictures today.
I saw an article last week where a professor at Michigan State University is experimenting on extracting oil from the rutabaga seed. Their hope is in the future (25 years)to have "huge farms" in the "colder climates" i.e. the U.P. that can grow these and extract the oils to use in automobiles. Line up now to buy some acreage...

Looks good, Brenda. And makes me hungry.

I've heard that the sandy soil in the UP is good for growing potatoes. Does anyone know if that's true? I'm an Illinois kid, and our soil is full of clay, heavy and hard as a rock when it gets dry.

Boy do I envy those nice red tomatoes - all mine are still green! I think they'll end up ripening on my windowsill!

Good + delicious photos.

Rachel I understand sand is for growing potatoes. As a child I lived a couple years in central Wisconsin (Plover-Stevens Point) They grew pine trees, potatoes and cucumbers for pickles. We have many potatoe farms in Western Ill. here along the Mississippi where its sandy.

I wish I liked tomatoes. If I make a B.L.T.- I slice a tomato paper thin and use just one slice. With everything else on a B.L.T. it kinda covers up the taste of the tomatoe somewhat.

AWESOME CROP!!! Mine did not so good....I have one green cherry tomato, one that's half the size, and one just a little bigger than the bud! LOL...it wasn't a good season for my gardening!

Makes my mouth water! Mmmmm....nothing like a little home grown veggie, eh?

Gads, her plants and veggies look healthy! I'm so jealous! Here in Florida, the heat and rain is just too much for my veggies every year. The only thing I've been able to grow successfully are peppers, both bell and various hots.

Rachel Lord knows I'm no farmer but since no one else answered you question I'll put in my 2 cents worth. When I was a kid in school during WW2 many farms grew potatos in Houghton County. They let us take off from school to help harvest potatos. We did it for several years. They use to say that the best crops for that neck of the woods were potatos, strawberries, and rocks. They always came up every year.

Rachel Schreiner (Mooselover):
"… [is] the sandy soil in the UP is good for growing potatoes?"

Well they sure yoosta do plenty of (click →) Potato farming in the U.P.

More (click →) here on the same subject. Search the page for "potato".

Rachel, my grandfather always held that the UP soil was wonderful for growing potatoes and strawberries! My grandmother used to serve delicious strawberries over ice cream every time we visited them as I was growing up; no wonder they were her favorite dessert!

FRNash, thanks for the links to the potato farming information.

My grandfather, Bill Cargo, was an agronomist specializing in potatoes and strawberries, and a County Agricultural Agent for the MSU Extension in the UP from the 1940's to 1960's. He lived in Houghton for a good part of that time, and travelled to farms all over the area. Perhaps Stewart Keskitalo (who had a message on your first linked page about attending the Extension meetings as a boy) might have known him.

Through your second link, which leads to the MTU Archives, http://digarch.lib.mtu.edu/, and searching for "potato", I was able to spot my grandfather in the photograph of men grading potatoes which were on a pool table. :)